HASBRO TRANSFORMERS Q / A for March 8th- Submit Questions Here.

Only 2 questions?

That's kinda lame.

I'd like to know if/when Transformers Animated Season 3 will make a DVD release.

That is all.

Ok, here's one.

What prompted the decision for Hasbro to drop the Revenge of the Fallen logo from it's movie-styled-figures' packaging, what prevented Hasbro from merging that line into the Generations line, which so far seems to cover everything?

Well, I have one I've been wanting to ask for a while.

About the ROTF line, why do you make new molds of non movie characters before you finish making the actual characters? An example would be the Constructicons, only half of them are actual toys. I can see why Hightower and Overload aren't made but Scrapper was at least in the movie in robot form.

Will there be any other exclusive figures we can use NEST points for?

Will there be any new Animated toys released in America or they Takara only? IE Blackout.

I have a question about why HASBRO is avoiding the color red in its movies. Sideswipe, Ironhide, and Optimus Prime all are characters who have mainly red colors previously. Why not allow at least one to keep this main color scheme. Does it not film well? Does it look bad in robot mode?

Not a great question, but any theories feel free to respond.

1)will the Classics line continue? Classics have been one of my favorites
2)when will Animated "Jet Optimus" been released? the one with jet packs and Magnus' hammer

Why not make little articulated mini figures of the human characters to go with the classics and the rotf line of deluxe and voyager size figures? Pleaseeeeee. Similair to the human alliance line but in scale with the deluxe and voyager figures.

Why not a spike and daniel in the exo suit already? There articulated, go in and out of the tranforming exo suit and in scale with g1 figures?

Mechastrike wrote:1)will the Classics line continue? Classics have been one of my favorites

We've seen previews for the Generations line of figures, which renews the Classics style.

is G1 STAR SABER ever going to have a western release? lio covoy/leo prime managed to get 3 western releases.

My question:

Are you planning on making a Transformers Generations Devcon figure that is loyal to the way he looked in the G1 episode The Gambler?

tigertracks 24 wrote:I have a question about why HASBRO is avoiding the color red in its movies. Sideswipe, Ironhide, and Optimus Prime all are characters who have mainly red colors previously. Why not allow at least one to keep this main color scheme. Does it not film well? Does it look bad in robot mode?

Not a great question, but any theories feel free to respond.

I'm not an official source or anything, but I remember Bay saying that red cars don't "pop" on film.

Mkall wrote:Ok, here's one.

What prompted the decision for Hasbro to drop the Revenge of the Fallen logo from it's movie-styled-figures' packaging, what prevented Hasbro from merging that line into the Generations line, which so far seems to cover everything?

Again, I'm not an official source, but I read an article the said the Michael Bay gets 11% of the profits on movie themed toys (more than George Lucas gets for Star Wars toys!). I would assume that by removing the ROTF logo, they no longer legally have to pay Bay. Again, just a theory.

allspark99 wrote:is G1 STAR SABER ever going to have a western release? lio covoy/leo prime managed to get 3 western releases.

This question falls under the "won't talk about when X toy will be made or released?"

Mechastrike wrote:2)when will Animated "Jet Optimus" been released? the one with jet packs and Magnus' hammer

Same as above.

joeformer wrote:Why not make little articulated mini figures of the human characters to go with the classics and the rotf line of deluxe and voyager size figures? Pleaseeeeee. Similair to the human alliance line but in scale with the deluxe and voyager figures.

Why not a spike and daniel in the exo suit already? There articulated, go in and out of the tranforming exo suit and in scale with g1 figures?

Think this again, falls under their banner or not talking about a hypothetical X toy to be made.

Is Animated Arcee going to have a wide release outside of the United States or at least a repaint or retool?

Have you thought about the possibility of continuing the Human Alliance styled/sized figures into the Generations line? It would be awesome to get some classic characters in a larger-scale figure (somewhat of a cross between Alternators and Human Alliance), and for the "human alliance" aspect they could include classic G1 human characters, such as Spike, Sparkplug, Carly, Chip, Circuit Breaker, G.B. Blackrock, Raoul, etc...

Could we ask if the tail end of Animated has been cancelled or if it'll be released at all? Not exactly a "when" question, but an "if". I dunno how secret it could be since they already showed the figures...

Sonofa... I had a fantastic question to ask about a month ago and I even said it in another thread. For the life of me I can't remember it. Phaaaaaaaaaaak!

If the popularity of the Deluxe line of Generations continues, is there any chance we could see it grow or even shrink in class size to the likes of Scout, Voyager or even a single Leader or Supreme Class?

We all know that the Deluxe Generations line is going to sell like hotcakes at a homeless shelter with the exception of the Ravage repaint and the Arcee Bike repaint. Really take the hint here. I know it will all sell eventually, but profit and business wise it's always best to make the most money fast. ROTF repaints aren't going to propel that line to the minds and hearts of new fans. I know it's a filler line, but it's still a very good place to put some great figures.

That wasn't my great question BTW.

Down_Shift wrote:That wasn't my great question BTW.

Was it this one?

What does Hasbro look for in an animation studio? What do they compare it to? Do they consider how well the Marvel DVD/Blu-Rays do, or how well G.I. Joe Resolute went over with fans when thinking about the next possible show or Direct To Video?

Previous thread here if it wasn't.

ive got one, "Why do you continue to do store exclusives when no one but you seems to like the concept?"

I only have one question to submit. I'm content with waiting in anticipation for specific characters to be revealed but I'm just curious...

1). With the concept of Generations suggesting that all Transformers lines from the past are a possibility, does Hasbro plan to further explore European G1 characters or Japanese G1 Headmasters, Super God Masterforce, Victory, or Zone characters or even characters from both Dreamwave and IDW characters, point in case being Drift being a comic character, or even more obscure characters for inclusion in the Generations line or will the line continue to focus on the American Transformers continuities? Will it all be characters we know or will there possibly be a few surprises of little know to unknown characters making appearances in toy form?

I've got one:
We've all heard that G1 Fortress Maximus can't be re-released in the US (I still don't see why it can't if targeted for an adult collector's market), and with the Generations line supposedly covering all areas, could we possibly see a new headmaster? Or even finally doing some of the unproduced G1 combiners?

Megatron Wolf wrote:ive got one, "Why do you continue to do store exclusives when no one but you seems to like the concept?"

Because in some cases it's either "Store Exclusive" or "It's Not Released, Sorry."

Titanium Grimlock and Prowl was like that, as was Classics Devastator (heck, not even many WalMarts knew they were getting them). I suspect that it's the same with TFA Arcee and Ratchet, and possibly the rest of the TFA line.

Megatron Wolf wrote:ive got one, "Why do you continue to do store exclusives when no one but you seems to like the concept?"

Because the stores request them which in turn drives sales for said store. That keeps that certain outlet happy enough to contnue doing business with Hasbro. That's about as simple as I can make it sound without comin' off like a jerk.

What classic character is Universe Classic Voyager Heavy Load is supposed to pay homage to?

With us just getting 2 questions combined with all the restrictions which don't seem to exist with other toylines plus the fact that most answers are ambiguous why should we give a sh*te about this Q&A any more?

Dead Metal wrote:With us just getting 2 questions combined with all the restrictions which don't seem to exist with other toylines plus the fact that most answers are ambiguous why should we give a sh*te about this Q&A any more?

Actually these very guidelines NOW exist for all Q/A types that HASBRO is doing from this point forth. WE can ask what we want, but they are starting to give us feedback and say, look, we aren't going to consider answering these types of questions, so don't waste a question asking one.

Now interpretation and wording seem to be key here, and it will be interesting and almost horrible at the same time because we'll all be scrutinizing each websites questions more saying such things as, "Hey, I thought we could not ask X type of question, they did and got it answered."


Anyway, when I saw it I thought it was a bit limiting, but at least we know what KIND of questions they will answer now.

Here's one for the Marketing dept'...

"Why is communication with UK & European fans so poor? I don't just ask this as a fan but as a parent too, with a 6yr old who is into the "Animated" range. The UK Website currently looks like this and has done for a while now. During the ROTF range we saw an uprecedented amount of store exclusives in the UK in actual bricks and mortar stores. The problem was, nobody told us

Two that spring immediately to mind are the Target Exclusive "Buring Fallen" & the Market six Universe MiniCon 10pk. Both of these were packaged in a multi-language Euro-box, which means you knew and intended to sell them here. How difficult would it be for HasbroUK to put out a press release stating "We've just had confirmation that toy X has been packaged on a European card, keep your eyes peeled" and email it to a site like this? Throughout the Unicron Trilogy for those of us in Europe it was just as easy (and comparatively priced) to buy the Takara counterparts, I won't even mention the availability of Alternators or late waves of the 2007 Voyagers. We didn't know what we were going to be getting or when we would get it, so a lot items were bought on sight, some of which appeared later, but you didn't get my business.

Hasbro, I will quite happily give you my custom, rather than going to Ebay and the secondary market, but you need to help me plan my purchases."

Hopefully that didn't come off as too much of a rant....

Why does the upcoming SDCC exclusive Blaster reissue revealed at this year's Toyfair only have three of his four cassettes? Will Hasbro relase in some form the missing cassette?

i have some questons for hasbro

1.why do you have new toys in one stroe in town but in antother stroe in the same town you dont

2.is the elita one figure were having come out later this year . will it be a redeco of chromia and will she be able to combine with her sister

3. when will leader starscream,humna alliance jazz, and all the figures we saw at toy fair come out

4. when will war for seibertron be released

ROARBO wrote:i have some questons for hasbro

1.why do you have new toys in one stroe in town but in antother stroe in the same town you dont

This has been addressed. It has to do with individual store products requests which is more than likely based on the movement of the product in their store.

2.is the elita one figure were having come out later this year . will it be a redeco of chromia and will she be able to combine with her sister

They had told us early that combining was intended for the 3 'different' bikes. Whether you can do it with this one, if it is simply a repaint, one should be able to take two Arcees, and combine them with a Chromia or vice versa. Otherwise, we will have to wait for the third bike, I believe she was named FLARE UP.

3. when will leader starscream,humna alliance jazz, and all the figures we saw at toy fair come out

That information was presented at Toy Fair and I believe it is early to late fall this year, you know holidays time.

4. when will war for seibertron be released

The game is coming out June 22nd, as I remember the date being. I would expect the figures to come out at the same time, as well as the book planned to be a companion to the game, and figures.

This is all what I remember, but as I said, I am fairly certain we have seen the answers to these, as I have stated.

1.) When are you Hasbro going to suggest to Steven Spielberg to fire Michael Bay???

2.) Why doesn't Hasbro make any Pontiac Trans Am TransFormers?

I know they don't make Pontiac anymore people! So, don't reply on that.

tigertracks 24 wrote:I have a question about why HASBRO is avoiding the color red in its movies. Sideswipe, Ironhide, and Optimus Prime all are characters who have mainly red colors previously. Why not allow at least one to keep this main color scheme. Does it not film well? Does it look bad in robot mode?

Not a great question, but any theories feel free to respond.

Red just doesn't work well with filming. That's why you really don't see red cars in commercials. I thinks it's that red kinda washes everything out. You know what I mean? Everything around the red car looks really dull. And red might not show up as red on film. Might look more like pink or faded red.

tigertracks 24 wrote:I have a question about why HASBRO is avoiding the color red in its movies. Sideswipe, Ironhide, and Optimus Prime all are characters who have mainly red colors previously. Why not allow at least one to keep this main color scheme. Does it not film well? Does it look bad in robot mode?

Not a great question, but any theories feel free to respond.

'bogofshhh' is right in what Michael Bay said (and so is 'ConBotFormer'), because red is an extremely difficult colour to render for film; especially for CGI. That's why most of the red on Optimus Prime is half pale (and the whole reason why Prime has flames in the first place) and I think it's to do with Mudflap's rich red colour; it was supposed to be a brighter, more orange-y tone (which is why the Deluxe toy is 'orange').

It's also a problem with Blu-Ray discs; all the colours have been enhanced, but the reds are problematic and blood (for example) is brighter than it should be (examples include on Terminator 2 and Zulu).

ROARBO wrote:i have some questons for hasbro
2.is the elita one figure were having come out later this year . will it be a redeco of chromia and will she be able to combine with her sister

According to the 2010 toy fair, the Hasbro presentation stated that once the Elita-1 figure is released, instructions to show you how to combine the three bikes will be released online. (It's very likely, there's a big pull-out piece underneath Deluxe Chromia and that has a slot in it; it's not mentioned anywhere on the instructions and it isn't used in any bike mode, so it most likely will be used for the combination.)

Dead Metal wrote:With us just getting 2 questions combined with all the restrictions which don't seem to exist with other toylines plus the fact that most answers are ambiguous why should we give a sh*te about this Q&A any more?

right?

I'd be curious whether the last of the Animated line will see a US release, too, but I don't know if they'd answer it with the new restrictions.

Don't think they'd answer anything else I might care to know... Can they answer what MP Grimlock's MSRP is?

My questions do not concern the toys.

1. When will another Beast Wars/Beast Machines comic be published?

2. I love the Transformers Legends anthology book which was published in 2004. When will another anthology book be planned and who should I contact at Hasbro about submitting my story? I called Hasbro at the two numbers on their website but they had no idea. They directed me back to each other.

I'm working on a story fellow fans would love as much as the ones published in Legends.

cybertron2010 wrote:My questions do not concern the toys.

1. When will another Beast Wars/Beast Machines comic be published?

2. I love the Transformers Legends anthology book which was published in 2004. When will another anthology book be planned and who should I contact at Hasbro about submitting my story? I called Hasbro at the two numbers on their website but they had no idea. They directed me back to each other.

I'm working on a story fellow fans would love as much as the ones published in Legends.

I believe that those are IDW questions, since they're doing the comics these days.

Hm, no answers for my question, well here's question 2 then.

Mostly about the movie line(but it happens in other lines too):Why do you make characters out of scale? More specifically I mean in the movie line some of the biggest characters are always put in the smallest scale. My example is Deluxe class BoneCrusher. Big robot in the movie but small deluxe class. But he wasn't a major character, so I guess a better example would be Blackout. Why did you make Blackout so small? He pretty much started the movie.

Mkall wrote:

Down_Shift wrote:That wasn't my great question BTW.

Was it this one?

What does Hasbro look for in an animation studio? What do they compare it to? Do they consider how well the Marvel DVD/Blu-Rays do, or how well G.I. Joe Resolute went over with fans when thinking about the next possible show or Direct To Video?

Previous thread here if it wasn't.

Yes! This is why we're friends. I said it on MSN, and I'll say it here.

You're my boy Blue, you're my boy!

A few questions to choose from...

Does Hasbro or the Japanese companies plan to do the cone heads in the masterpiece line ???

What do I do with extra nest stickers after I mail ordered Ravenge already ??? (I dont want to buy another Soundwave/Bumblee set to get a 2nd Ravage)

Why not get the colors movie accurate the first time ??? (Megatron, Ravage, Demolishor, Rampage, etc.)

What is the date that the Generations line will be released ??? (I want that Thrust and hopefully Dirge will be next)

Rated X wrote:Why not get the colors movie accurate the first time ??? (Megatron, Ravage, Demolishor, Rampage, etc.)

I would be curious as to how Hasbro would answer this...more accurate or more quality. I'm guessing it's so they can get you to buy the same damn thing twice, but I'd like to hear their "official" reasoning for a green voyager Megatron, a yellow Rampage, inferior painted leader Prime, etc...and it would be within their new question criteria.

zenosaurus_x wrote:Hm, no answers for my question, well here's question 2 then.

Mostly about the movie line(but it happens in other lines too):Why do you make characters out of scale? More specifically I mean in the movie line some of the biggest characters are always put in the smallest scale. My example is Deluxe class BoneCrusher. Big robot in the movie but small deluxe class. But he wasn't a major character, so I guess a better example would be Blackout. Why did you make Blackout so small? He pretty much started the movie.

You know, Hasbro said in hindsight that they would've faired better putting Bonecrusher in the Voyager line. Now, the biggest question is why did they do Brawl (who is a much more minor character; he didn't even appear until the end) as a Leader and not the more major characters as you say (Blackout, Bonecrusher)?

And I say Bonescrusher as a more major character, because even though his screentime was shorter than Brawl, he was the first big Decepticon in action (I think), he received a lot of trailer coverage and he has a one-to-one fight with Optimus Prime. To me, it'd make sense to make a Leader Bonecrusher just for that fight alone. (Seriously, how could they justify that Deluxe Bonecrusher and Voyager Prime box set?!)

Speaking of Blackout, Hasbro can have a justifiable reason for releasing a Leader Grindor figure (which is more or less a reincarnation of Blackout) seeing as he was in the big three-against-one fight of ROTF. They can do what they did for the Voyager Blackout and repaint/retool for the particular character. Simples!

This could be my question to Hasbro; would they be willing to put out a 'Movie Universe' line so that they could produce more scale-accurate figures from the two (and upcoming) pictures? (Voyager Ratchet and Deluxe Jazz need a retool, seeing as they're too big to have with V.Ironhide, D.Bumblebee, L.Prime, et all)

(Then again, I fear that every time I try to ask a burning question to Hasbro I may as well ask 'can you answer one question for me?' they'll say 'yes' and expect me to say 'thank you very much!' Yes that was borrowed from Family Guy!)

Tigertracks24, you had some good responses to your question regarding the use of red, all of which were correct in the sense that they contribute to the decision to use (or not use) the color in filming. The final issue with red, and this is common in both automotive paints in colored lacquers and conversion varnishes like what I deal with, is that the base element for the pigment is very dense and very hard to touch up flawlessly after it's initial application. You couldn't do a minor touch-up on Sideswipe or Prime and call it good, you'd have to repaint an entire fender and ideally do it with the same batch as his original paint-job otherwise it would show up majorly on film. Any touch up required during production, even for a minor rock chip would have been a pain for either the CGI guys or the automotive detail crew. (I absolutely HATED doing red lacquered cabinets for customers. Touch-up on the corners was pure hell)

As for my question for Hasbro...

Is the recent rise in 3rd party custom productions (and the positive response from the fan community over these customs) going to be perceived by Hasbro's Design and Marketing divisions as a threat or as the much needed wake-up call in terms of dealing with the secondary market of collectors/older fans of the Transformers franchise? A new standard is being set and fans are anxious to see if Hasbro is going to step up and meet this standard.

My question "Will there be any more human alliance figures coming out after HA Jazz?"

I have a question for hasbro.

"With the dwindling economic situation in the United States, have you thought of rewarding your loyal customers here by opening a manufacturing plant somewhere in the states, therefore providing much needed work and economic stimulation so we can buy your products to keep, rather than buying and returning them later so we can try the new figures when they come out?

Sincerely,
Laid-off and Hungry in the Midwest US"

Real question, not a joke.

Is Elita-1 supposed to be the purple Arcee bike from Revenge of the Fallen or is it a different character?

Evil_the_Nub wrote:Is Elita-1 supposed to be the purple Arcee bike from Revenge of the Fallen or is it a different character?

Yes ask this to Hasbro, we need to know. Unless someone around here can confirm otherwise.

freaky777 wrote:

Evil_the_Nub wrote:Is Elita-1 supposed to be the purple Arcee bike from Revenge of the Fallen or is it a different character?

Yes ask this to Hasbro, we need to know. Unless someone around here can confirm otherwise.

Try here, should help

1) Why do we see more redecos such as Defender Optimus Prime and Tuner Mudflap, which do not differ much from each charachters original colors, instead of more drastic redecos like with Jungle Bonecrusher from the 08 Allspark Power line?

2) It's becoming less often we see molds from Armada and prior re-used in newer toy lines, is there a certain reason for this?

Are we going to be seeing more Animated figures under the ROTF line? Like Nest Lockdown?

Nekoman wrote:1) Why do we see more redecos such as Defender Optimus Prime and Tuner Mudflap, which do not differ much from each charachters original colors, instead of more drastic redecos like with Jungle Bonecrusher from the 08 Allspark Power line?

Or how about why have the repaints become so effin' lazy like Jungle Bonecrusher (sorry, I think he's pointless), Defender Optimus, Tuner Mudflap, Desert Ratchet, Offroad Ironhide, Why Bother Bumblebee, Looks Stupid Sideswipe, etc, etc, etc, etc, and etc... How about repaint them into a different character or the occasional redeco someone might actually give a sheet about?